In contrast to other studies which suggest that the highest OTA reduction
was observed at the lowest OTA initial concentration (Fuchs
et al., 2008; Mateo et al., 2010a), our results indicated that the initial
OTA concentration had no evident effect on % OTA decrease, regardless
of pH and bacterial composite. Moreover, no growth was observed
by all of the studied bacterial composites at pH 3.0, possibly
due to the highly stressful effect of pH 3.0 on bacterial growth. Concerning
the effect of cell density on OTA reduction, the high initial inoculum
(107 cfu/mL) indicated higher ability for OTA reduction than
103 cfu/mL, consistently with the results of Fuchs et al. (2008). Considering
the above, it may be suggested that the bacterial composites
should be applied in combination with other detoxification methods
i.e., physical or chemical, in order to increase their OTA reduction
potential.